LAS VEGAS — Baseball’s Winter Meetings concluded Thursday with no one having claimed the mega-millions jackpot.

Manny Machado and Bryce Harper remain unsigned, visions of $300 million contracts dancing in their heads.

In Harper’s case, the accepted wisdom is the 26-year-old free-agent outfielder and his agent, Scott Boras, want to top Giancarlo Stanton’s 13-year, $325 million extension as the largest contract in baseball history. It is not readily apparent which team would be willing to make the free agent’s wishes come true.

“You’re dealing with a generational player,” Boras has said of Harper, claiming that “he will pay for himself, independent of a great performance” because no other player has “ever had such close connection with franchise value, attendance and TV ratings.

“He holds the qualities of elite performance, at the youngest age for a free agent in history to be available to the greatest number of elite teams.”

One elite team, the New York Yankees, says it is not in the running. GM Brian Cashman told reporters at the Winter Meetings on Monday his team was not pursuing Harper – though Boras tortured a metaphor to dismiss that two days later.

“When the nurse walks into the room with a thermometer, the issue isn’t the temperature that day. It’s their health when they’re ready to leave the hospital,” Boras said. “And they’re not ready to leave the hospital.”

Whatever that means, the Philadelphia Phillies are seen as the team most eager to add Harper with the payroll flexibility to assume a mega-contract if that’s what it takes. The Chicago White Sox bubbled up this week as another potential landing spot, though Harper has said he wants to go to a contender – a description that would overly flatter the Sox at this point.

“When he’s going good, he’s one of the more difficult players to get out in the game. And I love the way he plays,” Phillies manager Gabe Kapler said Monday when asked about the free-agent outfielder. “There’s so much to like about what Bryce Harper brings to the table.”

If no team is willing to put $300 million on the table for him, though, that could be where the Dodgers come in.

Under president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman, the Dodgers have avoided getting into bidding wars for free agents. They have paid to keep their own – most notably outbidding the Washington Nationals to bring closer Kenley Jansen back for five years and $80 million after the 2016 season – but limited their forays into the free-agent market.

The Dodgers have already tried to acquire Harper at least once before, putting in a late-season waiver claim when the Washington Nationals raised the white flag last season and even engaging in trade talks involving a swap of Harper for Yasiel Puig (and prospects) in August.

If the $300 million offers don’t materialize, they could step into the Harper bidding with a creative offer, short in length but long on dollars – think four years for $150 million – with opt-out clauses that would give Harper another shot at free agency before his 30th birthday.

A shorter deal would be appealing to the team, avoiding the long-term handcuffs and regrets that inevitably come in the back half of mega-deals. But an annual average value exceeding the current high-water mark (Zack Greinke’s $34.4 million per year) would allow Harper and his agent to boast of a record deal.

Such a deal would fit the “nimble and opportunistic” self-image of the Dodgers’ front office even as it represented a major break from their recent spending history.

Boras dismissed the idea of a shorter deal when the idea was broached Wednesday and it does represent a longshot, requiring a number of teams to pass on Harper first.

RULE 5 DRAFT

The Dodgers lost two minor-leaguers in the major-league phase of the Rule 5 draft, which marks the end of the Winter Meetings. Connor Joe, an infielder-outfielder who hit .299 at Double-A and Triple-A last season, was chosen by the Reds. Drew Jackson, an infielder who spent last season at Double-A Tulsa, was chosen by the Phillies and subsequently traded to the Orioles.

Rule 5 picks must spend all of the next season on the major-league roster or be offered back to their previous team.

Bill Plunkett has covered everything from rodeo to Super Bowls to boxing (yeah, I was there the night Mike Tyson bit Evander Holyfield's ear off) during a career that started far too long ago to mention and eventually brought him to the OC some time last century (1999 actually). He has been covering Major League Baseball for the Orange County Register since 2003, spending time on both the Angels and Dodgers beats.